Did You Know?
Fun Great Falls Trivia
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 1805 | Lewis & Clark portaged the falls |
| 1884 | Great Falls Founded |
| 1884 | Vinegar Jones Cabin Built |
| 1885 | First School Built |
| 1885 | Great Falls Tribune first published |
| 1887 | Cascade County Formed — County Seat in Great Falls |
| 1887 | First Fire Bell in Montana |
| 1887 | First train arrived in Great Falls |
| 1887 | First church constructed |
| 1887 | First public transportation — horse drawn street car |
| 1888 | City of Great Falls Incorporated/Paris Gibson Mayor |
| 1889 | First water tap issued |
| 1890 | First Library built in Great Falls |
| 1891 | Black Eagle Dam built |
| 1891 | Public Transportation — Street Cars |
| 1891 | First Columbus Hospital built |
| 1896 | Central High School (Paris Gibson Square) built |
| 1898 | City purchased the water system |
| 1898 | First Deaconess Hospital built |
| 1903 | Second Library built |
| 1903 | County Courthouse completed |
| 1904 | First water storage tank built |
| 1904 | Catholic Diocese of Great Falls created |
| 1908 | "The Big Stack" built |
| 1910 | Rainbow Dam built |
| 1910 | First motorized fire fighting apparatus |
| 1911 | Residents owned 248 automobiles |
| 1914 | First ambulance/patrol wagon bought by the Police Department |
| 1915 | Volta Dam built |
| 1915 | Police Department got its first motorcycle |
| 1920 | 10th street bridge opened |
| 1929 | First runway at the airport completed |
| 1930 | Great Falls High School opened |
| 1930 | Morony Dam built |
| 1931 | Streetcars replaced with bus line |
| 1932 | College (University) of Great Falls founded |
| 1937 | Montana School for the Deaf and the Blind opened in Great Falls (formerly located in Bolder) |
| 1940 | Civic Center opened |
| 1940 | Volta Dam renamed Ryan Dam |
| 1942 | Construction on East Base (now Malmstrom AFB) began |
| 1950 | Great Falls largest city in Montana |
| 1950 | President Truman's Train Tour came to Great Falls |
| 1951 | Central Catholic High School Built (aka Paris Gibson Middle School) |
| 1956 | First Bookmobile service started |
| 1958 | Cochran Dam built |
| 1959 | City bus line went out of business |
| 1963 | Great Falls' first female mayor took office |
| 1963 | President Kennedy spoke at Memorial Stadium |
| 1964 | Iris named Great Falls' official flower |
| 1964 | The '64 Flood |
| 1965 | Charles M. Russell High School opened |
| 1967 | Third Library (current one) dedicated |
| 1967 | President Lyndon Johnson landed at Malmstrom AFB to rendezvous with Canadian Prime Minister Lester Pearson before flying to WA to sign a Columbia River treaty |
| 1970 | Great Falls second largest city in Montana |
| 1970 | The current fire stations built |
| 1973 | Central Catholic High closed |
| 1980 | Smelter shut down |
| 1980 | City covered with ash from Mount St. Helens |
| 1982 | The "Big Stack" demolished |
| 1982 | President Reagan visited. |
| 1982 | Great Falls Transit buses began service |
| 1989 | Beginnings of the Rivers Edge Trail |
| 1995 | City Clerk directed to have a web site developed |
| 1998 | Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center opened. |
| 2000 | Great Falls third largest city in Montana |
| 2000 | Second version of the City’s web site. |
| 2001 | Complete agenda packets become available on the web site |
| 2001 | Central Catholic High School re-opened (@ UGF) |
| 2002 | Third version of the City’s web site. |
| 2002 | Flow Rider opened at Electric City Water Park |
| 2003 | Cascade County took back control of Montana ExpoPark |
| 2004 | Fourth version of the City’s web site posted |
| 2004 | Riverside Railyard (skatepark) opened |
| 2004 | Vinegar Jones Cabin Opened |
| 2005 | President George W. Bush visited and held a "town hall" meeting at the Four Seasons Arena |
| 2005 | Explore! The Big Sky — National Lewis & Clark Bicentennial Signature Event |
| 2005 | Fire Training Center renamed Charles C. Carrico Regional Training Facility in honor of former Fire Chief Carrico |
| 2006 | Online Utility Payment and Information System came online |
| 2006 | Fifth version of the City’ web site posted |
| 2008 | Web site domain changed to www.greatfallsmt.net |
Great Falls First!
- Great Falls had the first fire bell in the State of Montana in 1887
- Great Falls was the first known community in Montana to elect an African American. In 1894, William M. Morgan was elected to one of two open constable positions.
- Great Falls had the first woman newspaper editor in Montana. Martha Edgerton Rolfe became editor of the Great Falls Leader in 1895, when her husband died of typhoid fever. Mrs. Rolfe, daughter of the first territorial governor of Montana, was also the first white woman to live in Great Falls arriving in May of 1884.
- Great Falls bought the first motorized fire fighting apparatus in the State of Montana in 1910
- In 1982, Great Falls hired the first female firefighter in the state.
Great Falls Claims to Fame
- Roe River — the world's shortest river
- Giant Springs — the largest fresh water spring in the U.S.
- Western Art Week
- Largest Movie Screen in Montana (Civic Center Mansfield Theater)
- Most rapid temperature change registered in the United States (-32F to 15F in 7 minutes January 11, 1980 NOAA)
- Explore! The Big Sky — National Lewis & Clark Bicentennial Signature Event
Great Falls Also Known As
- The Electric City
- River City
- Western Art Capital of the World
- The Cataract City — Historical. Not current in usage. Used before completion of the dams and installation of early "Electric" street lights. Cataract "A large or high waterfall."
Great Falls in the Movies
These movies were made in and around Great Falls:
- Northfork (2003)
- The Slaughter Rule (2002)
- Holy Matrimony (1994)
- The Untouchables (1987)
- The Stone Boy (1984)
- Telefon (1977)
- Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974)
Famous People who've Lived in Great Falls
- Terry Casey — U.S. World Championship hockey team
- Dorothy Coburn — Slient Movie Actress and Stuntperson
- Scott Davis — Twice Ice Skating National Champion and Olympian
- Dave Dickenson — football star, led the UM Grizzlies to national title
- Todd Foster — National Golden Gloves Champion and Olympian
- Pete Fromm — writer, four-time winner of PNBA book awards
- Tracey and Missy Gold — child sit-com actresses ("Growing Pains" and "Benson")
- Jim Kalafat — American Gladiator
- Mike Mansfield — statesman, Representative, Senator, Ambassador to Japan
- Dallas Neil — NFL Player
- John Petkevich — Ice Skating National Champion and Olympian
- Charley Pride — Country Music Star
- William Roth — Congressman from Delaware (Roth IRA) born in Great Falls
- Charles M. Russell — Western Artist
- Lones Wigger — 2 Olympic Gold and 1 Silver in shooting events
- Bob Woolf — NBA Mascot (in Mascot Hall of Fame)
- Jack Dempsey — boxing legend (1923 training camp in Verde Park)
- Brother Van — Early Methodist Missionary to the Native Americans
- Lewis, Clark and the other members of the Corps of Discovery (they lived in the area for over a month :) )
- Ryan Leaf — former NFL player
Miscellaneous
Great Falls lies at 47° 30' N latitude 111° 18' W longitude (give or take for location in town)
Water, water everywhere. . . Great Falls has three rivers: Missouri, Sun, and Roe.
What Wind? On July 18, 1884, Mrs. Kate Beachley, who had just become the third white woman to arrive in Great Falls, commented on how hard the wind was blowing. Everyone laughed. Later, Mrs. Beachley realized that the "wind" was only a breeze by local standards.
Got Arts and Culture? Great Falls has nine museums/interpretive centers: Cascade County Historical Society, Charles M. Russell Museum, Children’s Museum of Montana, Galerie Trinitas, Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail Interpretive Center, Malmstrom Air Force Base Museum, Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art, Ulm Pishkun State Park Visitor Center, and Ursuline Centre.
On June 8, 1964, the iris became the official flower of the City of Great Falls.
Great Falls kid-friendly in the winter: In the late 1800s and early 1900s, the City would flood certain vacant lots so kids would have a place to ice skate. In the 40s and 50s, Fourth Avenue South was open to traffic, except in the winter when a section of the avenue near Great Falls High School would be closed so children from, what is now, the Housing Authority Main Site could sled the hill safely.
In 2006:
- 541 Building Permits were issued
- there were 64 City Parks
- there were 46,139 trees
- there were 361 miles of streets and alleys
- there were 217,729 library visitors
- 356,651 items were borrowed from the library
- there were 57 water main breaks
- there were 11,000 street signs
Did You Know?
Timeline Narratives
It All Started With. . .
. . .the Indians who inhabited the area that would one day become Great Falls, Montana. Then came Lewis and Clark who spent nearly a month portaging around the five sets of cascading waterfalls — the largest being the great falls of the Missouri which they could hear from seven miles away!
U.S. citizens tended to avoid the area until 1882 when Paris Gibson came through and saw the falls and rivers. What was the most important resource a city could have? WATER! A city needed water for drinking, irrigating, and power generation.
Paris Gibson founded Great Falls in 1884 with the help of James Hill and his railroad. Unlike other frontier towns, Great Falls was designed to be a beautiful, organized city. The streets and avenues were laid out in a grid. Street and alley widths were specified, and elm trees were planted at specified intervals in the boulevards.
In 1888, Great Falls was incorporated as a City. Paris Gibson was the first mayor, but he only served as mayor for one year.
The Water System
By 1889, a private company was running a water treatment plant, and pumping water to residents of Great Falls. The first tap on the system was issued July 3, 1889 to Mr. A.W. Kingsbury for his building on Central Avenue. Nine years later, the City bought the water system for $375,000. The City took ownership of the system on November 3, 1898. In 1904, the City built the first water storage tank in Great Falls. The water treatment plant has been expanded numerous times, but it is still located in its original location.
The Library
In 1890, Great Falls' first library was built. The Valeria Library was named for Paris Gibson's wife and cost $5000 to build. The first librarian was Robert Williams. The second library, the Carnegie, opened in 1903.
The first bookmobile service in Great Falls started in 1953. Three years later the bookmobile was serving all of Cascade County.
The current Great Falls Public Library was dedicated on November 12, 1967.
Waterfalls and Dams
The Corps of Discovery had to portage around five major sets of waterfalls in this area. The falls are known as: the Great Falls of the Missouri, Crooked Falls, Rainbow Falls, Colter Falls, and Black Eagle Falls. One common misconception is that the falls that Great Falls is named for is actually in Great Falls. It's not. Black Eagle Falls is the only set that is actually in the City. Rainbow Falls is on the edge of town near Malmstrom Air Force Base. The Great Falls of the Missouri is several miles outside of town.
Today there are five hydroelectric dams on the Missouri River in Cascade County, Black Eagle Dam, Cochran Dam, Morony Dam, Rainbow Dam, and Ryan Dam. The first dam was Black Eagle Dam, built at the top of Black Eagle Falls in 1891. The second dam built was Rainbow Dam in 1910. Rainbow Dam sits on top of Rainbow Falls, just up river from Crooked Falls. The next dam to be built was Volta Dam in 1915. The Volta Dam was renamed Ryan Dam in 1940, in honor of John D. Ryan the president and founder of the Montana Power Company. Ryan Dam sits on top of the actual Great Falls of the Missouri. Morony Dam was built in 1930, and the last dam, Cochran, was built in 1958.
Not all of the falls have dams on them. Colter Falls were just up river from Rainbow, but that cascade is no longer visible. Colter Falls are in the pool of water behind Rainbow Dam. Crooked Falls is the only visible falls in the Missouri/Mississippi River system that does not have a dam sitting on top of it. Neither Morony Dam nor Cochran Dam sits on a falls at all.
Great Falls: Electric City or Motor City
Great Falls is the Electric City, but residents here have loved their motorized vehicles for a long time. The Great Falls Fire Department was the first in the state to buy motorized fire fighting equipment in 1910. The 1910 Census put the population of Great Falls at 13,948. In 1911, Great Falls residents owned a total of 278 automobiles. The Police Department bought its first motorized vehicle, an ambulance/patrol wagon, in 1914. The next year the Police asked for and received a Harley Davidson motorcycle to control speeding and reckless driving by motorists.
The Civic Center
The Civic Center was dedicated on April 19, 1940. The first performance, "Aida", was held that night. The next day featured "Madame Butterfly" and "Rigoletto". The theater was one of five major theaters in downtown Great Falls. Of the five, the Civic Center Theater is the only one that is still used as a theater.
The Civic Center Theater is a "vaudeville" style house, which means it was designed so that the sound of a human voice would reach all areas of the theater without the aid of microphones or amplifiers. Seating in the Civic Center Theater was refurbished through the "Remain Seated" campaign in 1996. The auditorium has 1,776 seats. The lighting system was recently upgraded.
When it was built, the Civic Center also housed an ice skating rink. The rink was used until the Four Seasons Arena was built in 1979. After the ice closed, the area was used for storage, but in the early '90s it was decided that that space could be used for a better purpose, and the Convention Center was born.
Today the Civic Center is home to four of the City’s eight departments, and the Theater and Convention Center are now the Mansfield Center for the Performing Arts.
Population
With the 1950 Census, Great Falls passed Butte to become the largest city in Montana. Twenty years later, Billings passed Great Falls to become the biggest city in Montana. Billings and Great Falls remained one and two until the 2000 Census when Missoula passed Great Falls by about 400 people to become the second largest city.
In the 1990 Census, Great Falls was the 406th largest city in the U.S. The 2000 Census rank had Great Falls, with 56,690 residents, as the 510th largest city in the U.S.